William Holt was born in Birkenhead in Cheshire on 29 November 1912, the son of William & Edith Holt. He joined the Royal Navy and submarines and by August 1943 he was a Stoker First Class serving in HMS SARACEN in the Mediterranean.

On 14 August 1943 SARACEN was forced to surface north-east of Bastia on the island of Corsica after a depth charge attack by the Italian corvettes Minerva and Euterpe. The crew of SARACEN abandoned ship and the submarine was scuttled. The crew including William Holt were taken as a Prisoners of War in Italy. After the Italian armistice William Holt tried to make his way to Allied lines but was arrested and held in Perugia jail before being transferred to Dachau and then Buchenwald Concentration Camps. After an intervention by a Czechoslovak interpreter, he was sent to Stalag XVIIIC at Markt Pongau, Austria. It is understood that he was beaten by camp guards during his captivity, damaging his health and he later died from pneumonia, weakness and exhaustion in a Camp at Uttendorf Tauermoos on 1 March 1944.

William Holt was the husband of Gladys Holt, and he is buried in the Klagenfurt War Cemetery in Austria in Grave No. 6.D.17.